Health Care:
The United States government has never been very good at administrating
or running anything. Look at Amtrak, Social Security, the
postal service and Medicare. So what on earth makes anyone, other
than a bureaucrat, think that the government can run health care?
There are just a few fundamental problems with our existing healthcare
that, if corrected could solve many of the current issues.
First, there are not enough doctors. It is simple supply and
demand. How long did it take for you to get your last doctor’s
appointment? What if there were more doctors? As supply
reaches the point of equilibrium with demand, prices level out to
amounts that sustain both the supplier (doctor) and the consumer
(patient). We need more specialists, general practitioners,
research doctors and nurses.
Instead of spending billions on government run healthcare, we should
fund educational grants for all students that qualify to attend medical
school. In a few years America would have more medical and
research professionals to help increase supply and decrease some of the
costs.
Second, the insurance
companies should modify their system of payment so that the end user,
the patient, has more control over costs. Our current system
allows a patient to be insulated from the actual costs of health care.
Many of us simply supply our doctor with our insurance card with little
regard to the costs of the visit or procedure. The doctor is not
motivated to offer the best value to the patient and the patient is not
motivated to search of value because “the insurance covers it”.
As costs rise, the insurance company passes on those costs to the
consumer in the form of higher premiums. Nobody takes the
financial hit directly; the consumer sees it through annual insurance
premium increases that are unwelcome, but generally manageable.
Third, we need real
reform to control medical malpractice lawsuits. There are
countless legitimate lawsuits; however there are far too many that are
not.
The majority of Americans
are not supportive of a government run healthcare system. Despite
this, our government is bent on pushing through legislation that would
institute it. Currently there are some 1100 government agencies.
It is frightening to think that we might someday soon have another poorly
run government bureaucracy that will undoubtedly become rife with fraud
and corruption.
http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml
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